On January 22, 1965, Buddhists forced a protest demonstration against the U.S. Embassy. Vietnamese government police and special forces surrounded the U.S. Embassy and opened fire on the Buddhist demonstrators, wreaking havoc on the demonstrators and resulting in numerous arrests and casualties.

 　A Buddhist uprising in Vietnam forced Buddhists to protest against the U.S. Embassy on January 22, 1965, to demand that the U.S. government stop supporting the cabinet of Prime Minister Tran Van Phong of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam, which oppresses Buddhists. Vietnamese government police and special forces surrounded the U.S. Embassy and opened fire on the Buddhist demonstrators, wreaking havoc on the demonstrators and resulting in numerous arrests and casualties.In January 1965, Phuong expanded military spending with U.S. aid and equipment and increased the size of his army by expanding draft requirements.

  The Buddhist crisis sparked a civil resistance movement from May to November 1963, led mainly by Buddhist monks, against a series of repressive actions against Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. In protest against the persecution of Buddhists by the Ngo Dinh Jem regime in South Vietnam, Quang Duc immolated himself in front of the Cambodian embassy. The monk's self-immolation won the World Press Photo Award and became the starting point for Ngo Dinh Jem's assassination.

　After the assassination of South Vietnam's first president, Ngo Dinh Jem, on November 2, 1963, South Vietnam continued a period of sustained and severe instability, with multiple failed coups and other failed insurgencies over the next year and a half. Apart from personal rivalries among senior officers, civil strife was also stirred by conflicts among religious pressure movements. Buddhists lobbied for the removal of the pro-Catholic policies of the Go Dinh Gem regime. The officers who had risen rapidly through the ranks by vigorously implementing Go Dinh Jem's policy of converting to Catholicism also called for the abolition of the pro-Catholic policy. On the other hand, Catholics, whose privileges were rolled back after Ngo Dinh Jem's assassination, accused General Nguyen Khanh's regime of persecuting them in favor of Buddhists. Religious riots also broke out during this period.